March Madness, Texas on the Potomac style: Texans, Obama agree on … Kansas

A dozen members of the Texas congressional delegation have sent us their NCAA men’s basketball tourney brackets &#151 and we’ve added President Obama’s picks to the mix.

Photo illustration by Sarah Tung

Loyal Longhorn Lamar Smith

Here’s our political/sports analysis: Even though Republican leaders in Texas may not agree with Obama when it comes to politics, six of them had similar Final Four picks, with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s identical to the president’s.

Their consensus for the Final Four was Ohio State, Duke, Kansas and Pittsburgh, with Kansas beating OSU in Obama’s projected championship and Kansas beating Duke in Hutchison’s.

The majority of our Texas on the Potomac tourney entrants picked Kansas to win the tournament, followed by UT with three votes and Duke with two.

Out of the Texas’ 34 members of the House and Senate, 12 have chosen to participate in Texas on the Potomac’s tournament pool. They are Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar, Charlie Gonzalez and Ruben Hinojosa, GOP Sen. Hutchison and Republican Reps. Lamar Smith, Kevin Brady, Pete Olson, Ralph Hall, Ted Poe , Joe Barton, Michael McCaul and Blake Farenthold.

Photo illustration by Sarah Tung

Pete Olson’s wife is an avid Blue Devil.

Cuellar projected his graduate school alma mater, Texas A&M University, losing to Notre Dame in the second round.

Hall has his undergraduate alma mater, UT, beating Kansas in the April 4 championship game in Houston.

UT is the alma mater of three other Texas congresspeople &#151 Farenthold, Hinojosa and Hutchison &#151 but only one of them has their school winning the tournament. Farenthold, who has UNC, UT, Texas A&M and Florida in the Final Four, predicted his Longhorns to outplay those other Texans, the Aggies.

Check back at Texas on the Potomac later today to view the full brackets of the lawmakers, the president and TxPotomac interns Gabriella Ferrari (New Mexico State) and Katie Perkowski (University of Kentucky).